Pre-crash safety (PCS) has been conventionally realized which reduces or prevents damage of a collision between the own vehicle and a target such as another vehicle, a pedestrian, or a road structure, located ahead of the own vehicle in a traveling direction. According to PCS, a time to collision (TTC) which is a predicted time until the own vehicle collides with an obstacle is calculated based on a relative distance between the own vehicle and the obstacle and a relative speed or a relative acceleration between the own vehicle and the obstacle. Then, based on the time to collision thus calculated, the PCS notifies the driver of the approach of the own vehicle to the obstacle through a notification device or the like, or activates a braking device of the own vehicle.
On a road, there is a case where an obstacle such as a parked vehicle is present between the own vehicle and a target. In such a case, it is necessary to detect the target present on the other side of the obstacle and respond to the target which suddenly appears from the other side of the obstacle.
Thus, for example, PTL 1 discloses an object detection apparatus for detecting a pedestrian present on the other side of an obstacle present ahead of the own vehicle in a traveling direction. According to the object detection apparatus disclosed in PTL 1, an image of the forward area of the own vehicle in the traveling direction is captured and image recognition is performed with respect to the captured image. Thus, the object detection apparatus can recognize an upper part of a body or the like of a pedestrian in a region including an obstacle in the captured image. In this case, the object detection apparatus determines that the pedestrian is present on the other side of the obstacle. A distance between the recognized pedestrian and the own vehicle is detected by a radar device.